And You Chose Me
by Aksannyi
Summary: Tony learns that Ziva is bisexual; Ziva thought that Tony had always known. A little bit of angst and a little bit of fluff.


**Established Tiva, pre- or post-Tali. Fluff with a tiny bit of angst.**

* * *

He was awakened by the sound of Ziva's voice, hushed in the darkness as she spoke in Hebrew to the person on the other end of the phone. Tony peered at the clock, noting that it was just past four in the morning, and he wondered who on earth – or in Israel, it seemed – would call at this hour.

" _Shalom,"_ Ziva said, ending the call, and she placed her phone on the nightstand, reaching for the charger that had fallen between the table and the bed and plugging her phone back in.

"Who was that?" Tony mumbled, his voice still rough with sleep, as the call must have been important for Ziva to have answered at this hour.

"It was an ex of mine. She was calling to tell me her mother had passed."

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said automatically, his brain not fully registering her statement. The first conscious thought that struck him as odd was that an ex of hers would still have her phone number, and the second was that Ziva had said "she" and "her."

"She? Her?" he said, sitting up on the bed, his mind slipping into a more permanent state of awareness. "And why does _she_ have your number?"

"She doesn't," Ziva replied, reaching for her phone and showing him the Facebook Messenger app. "It was through this. Anyone on your friend list can call you without having your number."

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose of…" he trailed off, shaking his head. It didn't matter. He didn't use that app anyway. "Besides… you dated a woman?"

She smiled slightly, as if she was amused by his sleepy inquisitiveness. They'd been together now for almost a year, and their dating history was rarely a topic of conversation. "A few, in fact," she said, shrugging slightly.

"I just didn't know you were… you know, into women."

She furrowed her brow, confusion clouding her features. "I thought you knew. Tony, I'm bisexual. I am attracted to both men and women."

"No, I'd have remembered that," he said, running his hand through his hair. It didn't bother him, not in the least, but he'd had no idea, and he had known Ziva for over a decade now. How had this never come up?

"I am sure that I have mentioned it more than once," she said, reading his thoughts, and he shook his head in response.

"I mean… you've said things about seducing women, on missions… I just thought it was something for the mission. Or that you said it just to catch me off guard." There was a time when Ziva had loved to flirt with him, to tease him mercilessly just to watch him squirm. He'd always been certain that any mention of being with women was meant for her to gain an upper hand over him, to intimidate him.

And holy shit, it had certainly been effective. Tony had spent more than a few nights alone conjuring up that scenario in his mind, but he'd never believed it to be based in reality.

"I really thought you were just saying things like that to shake me up. Get me bothered. It's pretty hot, you know," he said, giving a sheepish grin.

Ziva's eyes narrowed, her expression turning sour. "My attraction to women is not for your consumption." Perhaps she had never explicitly come out and said it, but she thought Tony had known. But she hadn't just been using her sexuality to get to him. She had been offering not-so-subtle hints about who she was. Had she really needed to stand there in front of him and say the words? Did their other coworkers also not know?

Tony interrupted her thoughts. "Of course it's not. I just… I didn't know."

"Well, now you do," she replied calmly, though she felt a slight rush of anxiety at that. Would it change how he felt about her? Was he okay with this? The world was more progressive now, and people were generally accepting, but was this something that would make him want to walk away? Would she lose him over this? _Being bi is a part of who I am._

It had never occurred to her that he hadn't known. She wondered how many nights might she have lain awake agonizing about telling him? She'd always assumed he had known. But there it was – that brief flicker of panic that she was no longer good enough for him; that her sexuality would render her unwanted. Discarded.

"This doesn't change how I feel about you, Ziva," he said, reaching for her hand and squeezing it gently. "I'm honestly pretty surprised right now but it changes nothing. I love you. I will always love you. This is just something else I get to love about you."

She let out a sigh of relief, glad that he had immediately known what she needed to hear and gave it, his words a comfort to her soul. "I love you, too," she said, grinning widely, and leaned in, cupping his cheek in her hand as she kissed him gently, feeling an overwhelming surge of warmth toward him and his easygoing acceptance of who she was.

Ziva pressed against him, leaning him back toward the pillow, and he let her, slowly pulling her with him as they tumbled back onto the bed together. She lay in his arms, her head across his chest, her hand tracing small patterns on his nightshirt. Nothing had changed, not really, and yet somehow, the world seemed to have shifted just slightly.

"So you could, theoretically, be with any person on the planet and you still choose me?" he said finally, his voice quiet with awe. When he put it that way, it did seem rather amazing, didn't it?

"Seems like such a waste, doesn't it?"

"Hey!" he said, turning his head quickly toward her and catching her gaze, a teasing glint in her eyes. She was smiling, and soon he was, too. "All those people…"

"And I choose you."

They lay in silence another few moments, their breaths the only sound in the darkness. Ziva scratched lightly at the stubble on his cheek, and Tony absently rubbed her arm, which was wrapped possessively around his chest.

"Were you ever in love? With a woman, I mean?"

She let out a low chuckle, amused at the question, but she just knew that he was inquisitive by nature. "Does it matter?"

"You mean, will it change how I feel about you? Of course not, I mean… it's in the past." She felt him shrug his shoulders, and she turned to look at him, her neck craning to meet his gaze.

"It is in the past," she agreed, effectively silencing the question. They never spoke about their past relationships. They were together now, and that was all that mattered.

Tony, however, wasn't willing to let it go. "So…"

"I have never been in love. Not until I met you."

"Never?"

"I am sure I felt infatuation, and I certainly cared for the people I have dated. But love? Lay-my-life-down-and-sacrifice-everything _love?_ I cannot say that I have ever felt that for anyone else."

" _Ziva,"_ he gasped, pulling her up and into him, her lips crashing on his roughly as she collapsed into him, their embrace rough and desperate. She had never admitted that before – not to anyone. Tony was truly the first person she had ever been in love with. The only person she trusted with her heart, fully and completely.

She pulled him slightly and they turned, facing each other on their sides, finally pulling apart but remaining connected, their limbs entwined as they met each other's gaze in the darkened room. Tony gently caressed her cheek, shuddering slightly as she leaned into his touch. He was the only person she allowed herself to be this vulnerable around, and he made it his personal duty to never take that for granted.

"I love you," she said softly, leaning forward and kissing him sweetly on the lips. "Good night, Tony," she added, turning around and burrowing against him, smiling contentedly when his arm came around her waist to pull her close.

"I love you too," he replied, kissing her neck and holding her tight.

She had chosen him – seven billion people and she had chosen him – and he wasn't about to let her go.

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 **I've always believed that Ziva is bisexual and this is something that's been on my mind a lot lately. It's important to me that she have some of that representation, even if it's only in fanfiction because heaven knows we would never get it in canon.**

 **Thank you for reading. Please let me know what you think.**


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